• Parastie@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    This is entirely a USA problem. No one in Europe uses iMessage as their primary messaging app.

        • naught@sh.itjust.works
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          11 months ago

          Interesting ty!

          So before you can message anyone you have to download whatsapp? iMessage is preinstalled and is also e2e encrypted. Idk if I’d rather Facebook or Apple (who can access iCloud backups of normally otherwise encrypted data, etc.) in charge of my messaging infrastructure, honestly.

          Americans with Android are left to use literal SMS which is atrocious, or a different messaging solution, probably whatsapp I guess

          edit: I don’t like iMessage or the current state of messaging in the US. I feel like all the default messaging apps should be able to communicate e2e encrypted via some shared standard or something-- it’s weird to have to go third party

          • PeachMan@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Americans with Android are stuck using SMS half the time because Americans with iPhones are literally holding us back. If it wasn’t for iMessage, we would have ditched SMS years ago, but when you suggest to an iPhone user that they use something other than iMessage their head explodes, apparently.

            • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              when you suggest to an iPhone user that they use something other than iMessage their head explodes, apparently.

              Android users aren’t in such a tiny minority over there. Even by pure chance, there should be a decent number of Android users initiating events but since even they are so obsessed with iMessage, they don’t even try to use something else.

              • FutileRecipe@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                Android users aren’t in such a tiny minority over there.

                Yep, Android makes up around 40-45% of the mobile OS in America, depending on what site and when you look.

          • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            So before you can message anyone you have to download whatsapp?

            Yes and almost everyone around the world outside China and the USA does that. WhatsApp has 2 billion users.

          • Zak@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Yes, most people in western Europe use Whatsapp. Yes, they have to download it before they can use it. Maybe some phones have it preinstalled, but most smartphone users do know how to download apps. More tech-savvy and privacy-conscious people often have Signal as well.

          • TheEntity@kbin.social
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            11 months ago

            iMessage is preinstalled

            The whole point is: it isn’t more often than not. And unlike Whatsapp, you can’t even install it.

                • wax@lemmy.wtf
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                  11 months ago

                  Encrypted during transfer, yes, but still decrypted in the apps

              • Primarily0617@kbin.social
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                11 months ago

                In the congress hearing zucky boy did, he was asked whether Facebook could read Messenger and WhatsApp messages

                his response was to more or less trip over himself avowing that Facebook couldn’t read WhatsApp messages—even when a follow up question specifically asked him about Messenger, he chose to ignore it and reaffirm that WhatsApp messages were private

                i don’t really see why he would’ve done that unless WhatsApp actually was encrypted, given that if he were lying about one it would be a lot easier to just lie about both

                • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  his response was to more or less trip over himself avowing that Facebook couldn’t read WhatsApp messages—even when a follow up question specifically asked him about Messenger, he chose to ignore it and reaffirm that WhatsApp messages were private

                  Even FB Messenger: https://signal.org/blog/facebook-messenger/

                  It was optional for ages and recently read about it becoming the default.

          • Renohren@lemmy.today
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            11 months ago

            Android users get to use the default messages app, with the whole e2e encryption, reactions, full sized photos etc… SMS is used for advertisements, and sending messages to iphone users… SMS is only used by old people for 2fa as 2fa apps usualy have superior security and are now systematically prefered by companies.

            Both iphone users and android users need to download an extra app if they want E2E, full graphic images and videos, reactions etc…

            Just as people aren’t content with iWork and usually download Office because it works the same and can be read with the same formatting everywhere.

          • janguv@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            11 months ago

            So before you can message anyone you have to download whatsapp?

            I love how this seems like a near insurmountable hurdle. Install an app?? On a phone?!

            I have a relative who is ~85 years old; he uses WhatsApp. It’s really not that hard.

          • IndefiniteBen@leminal.space
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            11 months ago

            WhatsApp became the dominant messaging platform in Europe before Facebook bought them. Most people are locked in to it because change is hard and they don’t care that much about privacy.

              • IndefiniteBen@leminal.space
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                11 months ago

                The privacy concerns are not that Meta will read your messages (because they can’t, as you mention), but the metadata they can read such as your details and who you contact.

                “So, Facebook can track who sends WhatsApp messages, when, to whom, from which location (if a user allows), etc - but not the content itself,” Rykov says “This creates a privacy concern for people who want full anonymity. These people should consider using more privacy-enhancing apps like Signal, Threema, Wire instead.”

                https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/a-cheat-sheet-for-whatsapp-privacy/

                • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  the metadata they can read such as your details and who you contact.

                  Every provider of communication services can. Singling out WhatsApp in that regard makes no sense. Apple happily hands over metadata and iCloud backups to the FBI.

              • BolexForSoup@kbin.social
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                11 months ago

                Ultimately I just don’t trust meta at all. I trust Apple slightly more. Which still isn’t much, but it’s more.

          • set_secret@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            It must be so difficult to spend 2 whole seconds downloading an app to use for messaging. and yes it’s end to end encrypted too.

            • BolexForSoup@kbin.social
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              11 months ago

              There’s no need to be a jerk. For some of us it is just unexpected to hear that folks have phones where they download their primary messaging app. It would be like downloading an app to make calls - it’s just such a fundamental, core feature, that I wouldn’t really think to go third-party for my daily usage. It’s not that it makes no sense, but I hope you can understand why that is a little surprising to some people.

              I know that in the 20 years or so since I first got a cellphone I have just used whatever is on the phone natively. Nothing wrong with using WhatsApp, you do you. But that was how it used to be, and WhatsApp did not become so dominant until recently.

            • naught@sh.itjust.works
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              11 months ago

              Not hard! Just unfamiliar that’s all. Seems weird to me having just always used iMessage here in the states, which has awful interoperability with Android devices

          • TheMadnessKing@lemdro.id
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            11 months ago

            WhatsApp is also E2E and backup can also be encrypted (Atleast on Android).

            I just hope we can Interoperability b/w Signal and WhatsApp.

      • nudny ekscentryk@szmer.info
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        11 months ago

        Over here it’s Facebook Messenger, followed by Telegram and only then WhatsApp. Signal is niche stuff for nerds such as yours truly.

          • nudny ekscentryk@szmer.info
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            11 months ago

            Yeah it actually varies a lot. In Poland Whatsapp is the boomer messaging app for cringy political memes used exclusively by 50+ year-olds. Everyone else uses Facebook Messenger and Telegram (especially Ukrainians, Belarussians and people who work with them)

      • GenEcon@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        Germany uses Whatsapp and Signal. Whatsapp for the older generation, Signal for the younger ones. But almost everyone has both. Telegram is a niche messenger for conspiracy theorists and alt-righters, because it’s russian and those people love Russia.

        • berber@lemmy.chaos.berlin
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          11 months ago

          i live in germany and to me telegram doesn’t feel niche at all.

          a lot of younger people use it a bit like discord, like for group stuff. organizing (like e.g. political activism), finding apartents in berlin, and yes, getting drugs as well. also some worklplaces use it (which i think is terrible). it is also preferred by a lot of people to communicate via telegram over signal or whatsapp in situations where people don’t want to give away their number, like online dating.

    • TK420@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      And I refuse to use any Facebook products, so what’s app can fuck right off

      • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        True, a small minority uses iMessage but it’s so small, the EU didn’t even look twice at iMessage when assessing digital gatekeepers.

        • HactaiiMiju@lemmynsfw.com
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          11 months ago

          Everyone who has an iPhone uses iMessage as a main communication app. Nobody bothers to replace their default SMS client and literally all banks, institutions, 2FA and key communications rely on sms to work.

          The fact that most people seem to prefer to have their personal or business chats on WhatsApp is secondary to SMS and iMessage (on iPhone obviously).

          • Primarily0617@kbin.social
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            11 months ago

            but SMS isn’t where “main communication” happens anymore

            virtually all banks and institutions also send out letters via the postal service, but I wouldn’t say that was proof that “main communication” was typically delivered via envelope

          • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Everyone who has an iPhone uses iMessage as a main communication app. Nobody bothers to replace their default SMS client and literally all banks, institutions, 2FA and key communications rely on sms to work.

            Receiving a second factor is hardly communication. Nobody sends a thank you SMS back.

          • gens@programming.dev
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            11 months ago

            Nobody in europe that has an iphone uses imsg as their primary anything. Because Europe is an android dominated market.

          • hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            11 months ago

            Do you really want to know how dead iMessage is in Europe? I was on iPhone for 4 full years, with bunch of friends and colleagues with them as well. I never even knew that it was anything but SMS app - that no one uses. Everything is on other applications, and SMS is just for automated messages and like 5th backup communications method if nothing else is available

      • GenEcon@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        In what country do you live? I live in Germany and not even iPhone users use iMessage.

    • Scubus@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      Not a problem for me lmao. No one I talk to uses apple products because we have self respect